


Hurry Hard

by nisakomi



Category: EXO (Band), K-pop
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Sports, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-18
Updated: 2013-07-18
Packaged: 2018-05-04 23:40:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5352740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nisakomi/pseuds/nisakomi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>exo are university students from toronto who play the blessed sport of curling.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

the first practice of the year is in october. every year, stray first years show up timidly begging to be let in even if they paid the club registration fees late. every year, they quickly discover that their mean looking captain is actually a gentle giant. lu han encourages this; it amuses him that kris is the one who everyone is scared of when they should really be scared of is the innocent and cute looking vice captain.

lu han takes being vice skip very seriously. officially speaking, the first practice is just a practice, but he stands with a clipboard and scouts out new blood for the competitive team. kris patiently teaches those who have never curled in their lives before and lu han keeps an eye out for any new talent before try-outs begin.

“jesus fuck,” lu han whispers.

his eyes are trained on someone wearing fitted dress pants and a leopard-print track jacket. leopard-print is setting up and taking out rocks with greater precision than anyone who throws that heavily has any right to have. lu han watches, double after double, and screeches at kris.

“what?” kris asks him, eyebrows furrowed after turning away from a first year, who falls as soon as he looks away.

“look at him!” lu han bounces on his toes and his voice is loud enough that even yixing is paying attention now too. “look at him – fucking hell was that a _triple_?”

“oh. him. yeah,” kris turns away, seemingly uninterested, and looks at the first year still down on her hands and knees.

“ _please_ get up quickly,” kris says politely, “you’re ruining the ice.”

the first year looks down, embarrassed, and struggles to her feet quickly before slipping and landing on her butt. kris tries very hard not to roll his eyes.

*

leopard-print’s name is zitao. life sci program, pursuing a specialty in global health.

“he’s in trin too, which is why i know him. second year,” kris says.

“how long have you been curling?” lu han asks, eyes never leaving zitao’s face.

“uh, i started in high school?” zitao says, clutching his cellphone to his chest.

“why didn’t you join last year?” lu han demands angrily.

zitao shrugs. “thought it would interfere with wushu practice. kris ge told me it wouldn’t.”

“this is too convenient. we need a second and this guy magically appears. i’m dreaming. i’m going home. i have an ethnographic literature paper to draft. i’m going to wake up and sehun’s going to ask why i’m screaming ‘takeout’ in my sleep. i’m. i’m just going to go,” lu han says, already walking.

“don’t mind lu han,” yixing says with a cheery voice. “he’s just glad that we’ve got a shot at the championship now. also, i’m going to go too, kris looks like he wants to thank you _properly_.” he skips off with his starbucks towards the sociology building just as kris looks like he’s going to hit him.

“um. i –”

kris cuts zitao off. “already have a boyfriend. i know. when i first saw you making out with him at an lgbtout meeting. speaking of which, can you not tell them that i go to those?”

“uh, judging by what just happened, i’m pretty sure your friends know you’re gay.”

“but i don’t want them thinking that i, i dunno, like socializing and raising cute bunny rabbits and tying bows in my hair or something. because they’re not my friends. yixing and lu han? they’re just teammates. so, not friends. definitely not friends,” kris explains.

“got it. so you raise bunnies huh?”

“they’re adora– i mean, oh hey, i gotta go. don’t forget about practice next week!”


	2. Chapter 2

it’s not that sehun’s bad at making friends. it’s that it’s hard to find a good roommate, one that he can click with and won’t be gross. like jongin. sehun had once visited jongin’s room before curling practice when they were fourteen and he had never wanted to see another guy’s room again. ever.

except when the room he was entering was lu han’s. sehun sleeps over at lu han’s at least twice a month. they’ve always had sleepovers, from as early as sehun can remember. he’s also always been friends with lu han, their mothers had been roommates when they were in university. it seems fitting that they would come circle.

it’s just so much _easier_ rooming with lu han, who has a condo downtown within walking distance to both ryerson and u of t. it’s easier because lu han cooks and cleans and makes the home generally hospitable and when sehun has an article due at nine in the morning and hasn’t started until two, lu han bakes him chocolate chip cookies before going to bed (sehun had been very close to putting on the freshman fifteen from those cookies).

lu han is an east asian studies major, and has the highest marks of anyone sehun knows. in high school, lu han was an average student. but his parents had been against his choice of university major and lu han had been determined to prove them wrong.

“we didn’t immigrate here for you to throw your life into a career with low job prospects!” his mother had shouted at him.

his father had looked lu han in the eye before taking his side. “you were an english major. your parents were against it, but you thought there’d be better prospects in the west and now here’s your son, looking into the future and thinking that it’s better to go back to the motherland. what kind of person are you to say no?”

so lu han had studied his ass off.

sehun knows this story because lu han had been the one who supported him when he told his parents he wanted to pursue a degree in journalism. sehun had used this information as his key argument.

“you _bunked_ with her at yonsei. her son’s lowest mark last year was a 92 and he goes to the university of toronto. what kind of person are you to say no?”

his mother had relented and his father had no choice but to agree as well, after lu han told them that sehun was welcome to room with him and that he’d make sure he’d do well in his studies.

by do well in his studies, lu han really meant that sometimes they go for bubble tea at the tea shop 168 near yonge and gerrard and lu han offhandedly asks if he’s passing in a voice that doesn’t seem worried.

by passing, lu han really means that sehun better be doing his best to try to maintain a gpa of a 4.0.

by 4.0, lu han really means sehun better be getting higher than 90% in all his classes.

and by not worried, lu han really means that he’s just going to kill sehun if he isn’t making the grade.

*

strangely enough, sehun likes lu han. more than just for being the older brother figure in his life. as in, you know, when elementary school kids say _like_ like. that kind of like.

which is why sehun had followed lu han into curling in the first place.

“ten thousand bucks for club membership? are you kidding me? what is curling? what do you mean it’s a sport? your mom’s got a curling iron, sehun, don’t make me use it.”

but sehun had whined and whined and he may or may not have pulled the “but lu han’s family” card at that time too. come to think of it, he’s used that card for his entire life.

the worst realization seven-year-old sehun had when he first got to the curling rink was finding out that lu han had _other_ friends. he was horrified and masked that by acting sullen and he glared at everyone lu han laughed with. lu han was good, and people praised him, and he gave each of them a smile. sehun told himself he wasn’t jealous and looked away, to spot some other kid on the ice who threw with so much grace that sehun’s jaw dropped.

he licked his lips. well, if lu han could have other friends, sehun could too. jongin had become sehun’s best friend over time after that fateful encounter. between lu han and jongin, there was no way sehun could have gotten into any sport other than curling. being on the same university team as jongin to face lu han and some of his “other friends” makes it feel like his childhood never ended.

the best realization eighteen-year-old sehun had when he first moved into lu han’s one bedroom + den condo was that lu han _liked him back_. lu han kisses him when they’re sitting on the couch after all the boxes had been brought up the elevator and sehun’s shock had made lu han laugh.

“i’ve wanted to do that for quite some time now.”

“then why didn’t you?”

“sehun, up until maybe a day ago, i still thought you were, like, twelve.”

sehun shoves a pillow in his face.

“never mind, i take that back. you’re still twelve.”

and when they show up to lunch with jongin holding hands, jongin doesn’t bat an eye.

“we’re together,” sehun says to him when lu han had gone to the bathroom.

jongin snorts and says, “yeah, you’re always together.”

“no, i mean like, you know, dating.”

“oh. wait you mean you weren’t dating before?”

nothing really changes. they live a very domestic lifestyle. their entryway closet has their coats and shoes, as well as their curling brooms. the clock in the living room is in the shape of a curling rock. an apron hangs near the stove with the words “i throw rocks at houses” printed across the front.

sometimes their teams enter bonspiels together and at the end of games when they face each other, lu han pulls him into a kiss instead of a handshake. all of their teammates have come to treat this as completely normal.

sehun wouldn’t have it any other way.


	3. Chapter 3

jongin is one of _those_ kids. the ones who were born curling. who breathe in the cold, damp air as they stand on a sheet of ice and feel like they’ve come home. his blood is granite. his only motto in life is ‘aim at the broom’. he’s one of those kids.

his parents shove him into the child curling program as soon as he’s old enough so they can go socialize without having to worry about a little kid in the way.

jongin isn’t upset by this at all. he loves curling. loves it with all his heart. it feels natural to watch rocks slide down the ice, spinning slow and steady, a low hum as it curls just so. he doesn’t remember what life was like before all his shots were making it past the hog line. he doesn’t remember a way of sweeping that was meant to clean floors, rather than melt pebble as the rock gains another half a metre.

his soundtrack is made up of people yelling, “hard!” “yep!” “gotta go!” “off, right off, never!” and he closes his eyes and draws straight to the button.

by the time jongin is sixteen, he’s more consistent than any of the adults who curl at the club, and he’s their youth team’s ace. other teams whisper his name behind his back, and anyone who’s anyone in the curling community know about the up-and-coming hotshot curler from cricket club whose accuracy rate puts some olympians to shame. not that he’s ever gone against a team good enough for even nationals. not that jongin is a national-level curler. he’s just a natural, with enough passion to give him a very good shot.

joonmyeon is one of “those” kids. the ones whose parents earn enough money that all of them have memberships to st. georges, and sometimes they sponsor other families and athletes to join the club.

“it’s nothing,” joonmyeon had once tried out in his head, “a seventy thousand dollar initiation fee is nothing.” even saying it to himself made him wince.

joonmyeon’s parents are rich. joonmyeon is rich. joonmyeon lives in a house in central etobicoke that can only be described as a mansion. there’s a drive-up from the gates that lasts a full minute, and is surrounded by what can only be described as a forest. everyone on their street receives a ferrari for their sixteenth birthday, and joonmyeon doesn’t have one because he had asked for a lamborghini instead.

he had started off in golf. golf was fun. golf was relaxing. golf made all the right impressions for someone whose future was definitely going to be in business or investment. golf was a sensible sport, but not one that required a lot of strategy. and joonmyeon had too many thoughts in his head.

joonmyeon is only skip of the ryerson team because his ability to strategize is unmatched. jongin is admittedly the better of the two of them, but jongin would rather just throw the shots than call them. jongin yields to joonmyeon because jongin respects him and joonmyeon never takes advantage of jongin’s abilities because joonmyeon respects _him_.

a vice-skip/skip relationship is probably the most cliché curling love story that exists, but it’s theirs.

joonmyeon has an uncanny knack for predicting what might get them into a sticky situation. he knows his team like the back of his hand, knows to call a raise instead of a draw for sehun, knows that jongin’s favourite thing to do is draw, knows kyungsoo likes to curl counter-clockwise more than clockwise, and always gives him less ice for takeouts.

joonmyeon also has an uncanny ability when it comes to making jongin clean up his room, to eat real food instead of greasy fried chicken, and wear an extra sweater when it’s cold.

it’s his empathy.

“put on a sweater,” joonmyeon tells him.

“i’m not cold,” jongin says, and tries not to shiver.

“i’ll make you wear one of mine,” joonmyeon threatens.

“gross, everything you own is so…stuffy.”

“yeah, well, you look cute in them anyway.” that’s the line, and jongin blushes and dons a sweater.

sometimes:

“jongin, you’ve got to eat vegetables. or fruits. something other than deep fried meat.”

“no. never. i don’t want to.”

“you know i think it’s cute when you get chubbier and your face breaks out, but one day you’re going to have a physical and find out that you have high blood pressure and high cholesterol and what if we can’t grow old and wrinkly together?”

jongin scowls, tosses arugula in balsamic vinegar, calls it a salad, and eats it.

or:

“look, i know you’re upset that kris outsmarted us, and that lu han is devilishly lucky with his draws and okay, i get that it sucks to lose, but we won last time, and we’ll win next time, and you look adorable when you’re angry and pouting but i swear to god jongin if you don’t stop smacking the ice with your broom i will hide your curling shoes for the next two weeks.”

the truth is:

all joonmyeon has to do is call jongin cute and jongin feels like a princess and will do whatever it is the crown prince of his heart wishes.


	4. Chapter 4

it was probably chanyeol’s best idea yet.

in retrospect, it was not a very good idea.

“the curling ice is so special,” they said, “don’t touch it,” they said.

so obviously, the night before the tournament u of t was hosting (not that chanyeol knows this), he shows up to baekhyun’s dorm with a pair of skates and asks, “wanna have some fun?”

they’re on the track team, they don’t know any better. the only ice rinks they’ve ever seen are hockey arenas.

the lace up skates in the dark and push each other across the ice, skating circles around each other, and then doing laps in a rectangular rink. the ice is bumpy and it sucks for trying to get any real speed or distance.

“the ice is supposed to be special! what the fuck man, it’s like it hasn’t been flooded in years,” chanyeol complains.

he thinks about leaving but then baekhyun pushes him over and laughs at him and chanyeol’s thoughts immediately flit to revenge.

sometime around two in the morning, after both of them are exhausted, they finally sneak back out and congratulate themselves on another night of debauchery.

in the morning, kris is the one who opens the doors, sees the absolutely ruined ice, and lets out a scream that would put lu han to shame.


	5. Chapter 5

jongdae and minseok have been rival coaches for as long as either of them can remember. but every year, during their respective teams’ first practice sessions, they always have one shared reminder for everyone.

“curling is always the better sport. curling is the only sport where after a game, opponents sit down and have coffee with each other. curling is the best sport.”

and they swap any interesting reactions they get to that comment over starbucks the day after.


End file.
